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CERTAIN GRANTS OF LAND MADE IN THE 
YEAR 1684, NOW WITHIN THE LIMITS OF 
NASHUA, N. H. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, held in Boston, on Thursday, November 8, 
1894, the following remarks were made : — 

*»* 
Dr. Samuel A. Green called the attention of the members 

to a collection of manuscript Plans, drawn at an early period 
in the history of the Colony, by Captain Jonathan Danforth, a 
noted surveyor, which were given to the Library perhaps as early 
as the summer of 1816 by John Farmer, the well-known anti- 
quary of New Hampshire, and a Corresponding Member of this 
Society. For the most part they relate to tracts of land lying on 
the banks of the Merrimack River or in its neighborhood. One 
of these Plans represents a parcel of land lying north of Salmon 
Brook and south of the Nashua River, and running back from 
the Merrimack westward about two miles, and includes the 
territory now occupied by the thickly settled part of the city 
of Nashua, New Hampshire. It gives the house-lots of Thomas 
Clarke and John Sollendine, and the site of a house and barn, 
and of a saw-mill on Salmon Brook, perhaps three quarters of 
a mile from its mouth, besides showing the grants made to Mr. 
Clarke and Mr. Sollendine, and to Joseph Knight and Chris- 



topher Temple, in the second division of lands at Old Dun- 
stable, on September 10, 1684. This Plan contains some notes 
in short-hand written by Mr. Danforth, which our associate 
William P. Upham, Esq., — an expert in such matters, and 
the author of " A Brief History of the Art of Stenography " 
(Salem, 1877), — a year or two ago kindly deciphered for me. 
In order that these notes may be available hereafter to persons 
interested in the subject, they are now communicated for pub- 
lication in the Proceedings. The following is a copy of Mr. 
Upham's letter : — 

Newtonville, Mass., January 27, 1893. 
Dr. Samuel A. Green, Librarian. 

Dear Sir, — T send you herewith my rendering of the short-hand 
entries on the Dunstable Plan. Words or spaces within brackets indi- 
cate uncertainty or illegibility. 

The characters are the same as in the system of Theophilus Met- 
calfe, published in 1645. This system, sometimes slightly modified, was 
much used for more than a century. It is very nearly the same as 
that of Hull's short-hand Diary (Archaeologia Americana, Vol. III. 
p. 279). 

Edward Holyoke, President of Harvard College 1737-1769, used 
the same system, as appears by a manuscript copy of a book containing 
it given by him to Nathaniel Appleton, February 12, 1742. Many of 
the sermons of the eighteenth century (specimens of which may be 
seen at the Essex Institute in Salem) were written with the same 
characters. 

Samuel Parris, minister at Salem Village, used them in taking down, 
by order of the court, the examinations of those accused of witchcraft 
in 1692. These examinations, written out in full from his shorthand 
notes, and so attested by him, are still preserved in tlie Court House at 
Salem ; and it is to his skill in the use of these characters that we are 
indebted for the most graphic and evidently truthful account of those 
extraordinary scenes. 

Thomas Blowers, minister at Beverly 1701-1729, used the same 
system. 

Metcalfe's book was the first published short-hand work containing the 



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ingenious idea of denoting a particular vowel between two consonants 
by the relative position of the becoud consonant character. 

These old stenographic systems, so called, have been almost univer- 
sally superseded by the modern method of phouography. 
Very truly yours, 

Wm. P. Urn am. 

Joseph Knight 2' 1 diuision I 

&Uhnsto: remote -J-rf> » 

Laid out to Joseph Knight and Christopher Temple 440 acres of land 
for their 2d diuision in Dunstable upon Wa[tane]nok Neck it being 
part of the land which was appointed for the saw mill lot : bounded on 
the West by Joseph [Hasel] : 420. the line between them running N. 
48 degrees W : the S. W. corner is a pine standing [about] 4 pole on 
the S. W. side a little brook : [from] thence the line runs N. 34 degrees 
E : 163 : pole to m r Clarks line which bounds it on the East: this line 
runs N. 55 W : 86 pole to a pine [marked] C : from thence it runs N. 
31 : W : one mile which comes to Nashua river : pine : C : at the N. end 
it is bounded by Nashwa river 228 pole by a crooked line : and 42 pole 
by a litle brook that runs into Nashwa river : at the S. end it is bounded 
[on] land not yet disposed of: laid out: 10. 7™ 84 by Jonathan Dan- 
forth surveyor : 

Laid out to m r Thomas Clark of Boston the brazier: in Dunstable 
township 23 acres of land for a houselot [lying] upon Wa[tane]nok 
plain: bounded by Merimak river N. E : 16 pole: by Francis Cook 
on the S : the line between them runs S : W : 234 : pole bounded by 
m r John Solindine on the N : by a highway [S. W.] both side lines 
[are parallel] : the bound tree at Merimak between Cook and [ 
is a black oak. 

Also laid out to him for his 2d diuision 190 acres of land upon the 
same plain by m r Samuel Whiting farm upon Samon brook Southward : 
219 pole in a crooked line bounded on the S. E. by a highway : [the 
most] Southward angle is a pine marked with C. and from thence the 
line runs N. 55 W : 236. to a pine marked C : on the N. W : it is 
bounded by John Solindine: 184 pole: on the N and Eastward: it is 
bounded by land [formerly] laid out to Christopher Temple and [ 
[the last] lines running according to a plot taken of the same by Jona- 
than Danforth [Surveyor] 



Laid out to m 1 John Solindine in Dunstable township upon 
Wa[tane]nok plain: 23 acres of laud for a honselot: bounded by 
Merimak river on the N. E : 1G poles: by [m r ] Clark Southward: 
tlie line between them running S. 85 W. 234 poles bounded N. ward 
by land granted Zakariah Long: the N. E. corner is a [ ] oak 

marked C standing upon the bank of Merimak : both the side lines 
are [parallel] on the S. W. it is bounded by a highway : 16 pole [the] 
S. W. [bound] is a stake : 

Also laid out to him for his 2d. diuision 190 acres of land upon 
] is the land called the saw mill lot: bounded by Nashwa 
river 436 by [a ] and by Perrys Cove: 60 pole: on the West 

bounded by Joseph Knight and Christopher [ ] one mile: the 

line between them running N. 31 W : a pine tree marked C for a 
Southward bound : and another pine marked C standing by the bank 
side of Nashwa river: on the S. E. by m r Clark 184: all which 
is [ ] plot taken of the same by Jonathan Danforth surveyor. 

10. 7" 1684 



The word " Watanenok," as applied to a neck of land and a 
plain in Mr. Upham's rendering of the short-hand, is a name 
once given to the Nashua River. In Dr. Shurtleff's edition of 
the Massachusetts Colonial Records (IV. Part II. 569), under 
the date of October 15, 1673, there is a reference to " Nasha- 
way or Watananock River," which appears in a grant of land 
made to the Artillery Company of Boston. 

A letter from John Farmer to the Rev. Dr. Abiel Holmes, 
Corresponding Secretary of the Societ} r , dated at Amherst, New 
Hampshire, August 3, 1816, and printed in the Proceedings 
(I. 255, 256), contains a list of Plans which the writer con- 
siders " worthy of preservation." It is not stated in so many 
words that he intended to give them ; but inferentially he did 
intend so to do, though perhaps at a later period. At any 
rate most of these surveys are now in the Library ; still a few 
are missing. The description of them in the letter is so vague 
that their identification is somewhat difficult. The Plan, now 
the subject of these remarks, is listed under the general 



title: "Several Plans of Lands on Nashua and Cochecho 
Rivers." 

There is reason to think, from a letter to Dr. Holmes, writ- 
ten September 22, 1827, on the files of the Corresponding 
Secretary, that " A Plan of Billerica, 1658," mentioned in Mr. 
Farmer's list, was given at that date. 




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